This invention relates to a recording apparatus, a file management method, a program for a file management method and a recording medium having a program for a file management method recorded thereon and can be applied typically to an optical disk apparatus.
In recent years, disk apparatus and the like have been proposed which use a randomly accessible recording medium having a large capacity such as an optical disk.
A method is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-84705 (hereinafter referred to as Patent Document 1) which uses such a disk apparatus as described above to improve the operability in operation of a large number of files. According to the method of the Patent Document 1, an index file for indexing a large number of files recorded on a recording medium is produced from the large number of files and recorded on the recording medium. The large number of files on the recording medium can be operated using the index file.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-278996 (hereinafter referred to as Patent Document 2) discloses a method which further improves the operability in operation of a large number of files recorded on a recording medium. According to the method of the Patent Document 2, an index file produced in such a manner as described above manages the files hierarchically.
An index file to which the method of the Patent Document 2 is applied is formed from a train of slots of extract information extracted from management object files and so forth. Each of the slots has reference information set therein which points to a corresponding slot of a higher hierarchy in a hierarchical structure based on settings of the user or the like separate from a hierarchical structure based on a file management system for the recording medium and further in a virtual hierarchical structure of favorites based on settings of the user or the like. Consequently, with the index file, a hierarchical structure can be represented by successively tracing different hierarchies from a lower hierarchy based on the reference information.
Incidentally, it is considered possible to use, as such reference information which defines a hierarchical structure as described above, not only such higher hierarchy reference information pointing to a slot of a higher hierarchy but also lower hierarchy reference information pointing to a slot of a lower hierarchy and same hierarchy reference information pointing to a slot of the same hierarchy. It is anticipated that, if such lower hierarchy reference information and same hierarchy reference information as just mentioned are additionally used, then the convenience in use can be further improved. In particular, if higher hierarchy reference information, lower hierarchy reference information and same hierarchy reference information are used, then it is possible to trace hierarchies to both of the higher hierarchy side and the lower hierarchy side and also it is possible to detect files and folders belonging to a folder simply and easily.
Further, if the three kinds of reference information described above are set such that the higher hierarchy reference information points to a folder while the lower hierarchy reference information points to a folder or a file and the reference information which indicates a relationship to another slot in the same hierarchy circulatively and successively points to one of the other slots of the same hierarchy, then each of the three kinds of reference information in each slot can be set so as to point to one slot. It is considered that this conveniently provides flexible dealing also where the number of files registered in one folder differs variously.
Also it is considered that, if, in management of extract information in a unit of such a slot as described above, a flag set in each slot is changed so as to set the extract information set in the slot as invalid extract information thereby set the slot as a free slot, then corresponding extract information can be deleted simply and easily in response to deletion or the like of a file or a folder and the management of the index file can be simplified.
However, where a flag is set so as to set a slot as a free slot or add a free slot in this manner and re-utilize the free slot, there is a problem that, if the reference information is set so as to raise the convenience in grasping of a hierarchical structure, then the processing of the reference information is rather complicated.
In particular, where a hierarchical structure is represented by such higher hierarchy, lower hierarchy and same hierarchy reference information described above, if some slot is set as a free slot, then it is necessary to vary the settings of the reference information for a file or folder corresponding to the slot because the relationship thereof to the other slots changes. However, it is necessary to change not only the reference information of the slot of the processing object but also the higher hierarchy, lower hierarchy and same hierarchy reference information which points to the slot of the processing object. Consequently, in this instance, it is necessary to re-set the reference information not only in the slot of the processing object but also in the other slots. Further, since the same hierarchy reference information is set so as to successively and circulatively point to another one of the slots in the same hierarchy, it is necessary to successively trace the reference information to detect preceding and following slots in the circulation and re-set the reference information of the slots.
On the other hand, in order to re-utilize a free slot to register extract information, it is necessary to execute a process reverse to that in setting of a free slot. A similar process is required also when a free slot is added and utilized.